Paint container and brush enclosure



Oct. 22, 1968 c. w. HENRY PAINT CONTAINER AND BRUSH ENCLOSURE Filed May12, 1967 llVVE/VTOI? CARLTON W. HENRY United States Patent I PAINTCONTAINER AND BRUSH ENCLOSURE Carlton W. Henry, 4370 Tulane Court, ISpringfield, Ohio 45503 4 l Filed May 12, 1967, Ser. No. 638,13

1 1 Claim. (Cl. 206-151) "ABSTRACT OF-THE DISCLOSURE A device forsimultaneously preserving the paint in an open paint can and forprotecting a paint brush by suspending the bristles of the brush in theopen can of paint,

and then enclosing the can and brush so that the paint cannot'hardenthereby providing for the temporary prothepaint can thereby sealing itfrom the air and preventing the paint from drying or hardening. It isthen necessary'to clean completely the paint from the brush byrinsing'it in a solvent in the case of oil base paints or in soap andwater in the case of water 'base paints. This cleaning is time consumingand usually requires that the person gets paint on his hands. However,the cleaning must be done as failure to remove completely the paint fromthe brush will cause the paintto harden and destroy the usefulness ofthe brush. In'some cases, it is possible to wrap tightly the brush toprevent the air from getting to the paint, but this is time consumingand still does not entirely prevent a portion of the paint fromdrying onthe brush.

Summary of the invention- This invention relates to a combination brushholder and enclosure for protecting the brush and the paint in an opencan for a limited period of time, for example, over night. A supportbracket positions the brush above the can so that the bristles of thebrush extend into the paint, and the enclosure in the form of a flexiblebag easily encloses a paint can, brush, and bracket and is sealed toprevent circulation of air and drying of the paint. In anotherembodiment, the flexible enclosure is utilized to seal a paint tray androller combination.

Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is a perspective illustrationshowing the protective enclosure;

FIG. 2 is another perspective view showing the manner in which thebracket supports the paint brush on the paint can;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the brush supporting bracket;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken through the paint can and showing themanner in which the bracket is supported thereon; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the enclosure.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring to FIG. 1, thepreferred embodiment of the invention is shown as including theconventional paint can having a standard paint brush 11 supportedtherein by the brush support bracket 12 and enclosed in the flexibleenclosure 13. The can of paint 10 is standard and is normally of the onegallon size although this size is not a limitation on the invention asboth smaller and larger containers of paint may be used. Similarly, thetype of brush 11 utilized in the invention can vary without de-3,406,812 Patented Oct. 22, 1968 parting from the scope of theinvention, and thus an elongated brush having a relatively small widthor a brush with a very wide width can be used herewith so long as thepaint can 10 is of suflicient size to allow the brush 11 to be insertedtherein.

The bracket 12 for supporting the paint brush 11 is shown in'FIG'S. 2and 3 and includes an elongated strip of flexible material 15, forexample, cardboard. A brush receiving slot 16 is cut through from oneedge 17 thereof into the central portion 18 of the blank. This slot isof suflicient width so that the edges 21 thereof will engage and supportthe large portion 22 of the handle 23 of'the brush 11 to support thesame in a vertical position. A plurality of transverse fold lines 25 areprovided on each end of the blank parallel to the width thereof. In eachof 'these fold lines, a pair of the V-shaped projections 27 formed bythe score lines 28 is provided. When the portions of the bracket 12 arepivoted about any of the fold lines 25, the adjacent projections 27extend from the plane of the adjacent folded portion.

The projections 27 are utilized to engage the inner peripheral flange 30on the conventional paint can 10, as

shown in FIG. 4, to support the bracket 12 thereon. The vertical section31 of the flange 30 thus rests against the vertical portion 12a of thebracket 12 (FIG. 4) whereas the projection 27 extends on the oppositeside of the vertical section 31 to hold the bracket 12 in place. Sincethere are several pairs of projections 27 on each end of the bracket 12,the bracket may be mounted on the can 10 in several different positions,as indicated in broken lines in FIG. 4, to allow the bracket 12 toaccommodate brushes 11 of different length, as well as dilferent levelsof paint 33 in the can 10 as will be seen.

The enclosure 13 may he made of any air tight material, e.g.,polyethylene, and must be of sufiicient size and flexibility toaccommodate easily the paint can 10 with the bracket 12 and brush 11 inplace. This enclosure extends upwardly around the can and the open endthereof is sealed by a releasable clasp 35 which may be of plasticmaterial having a slot therein for receiving the end portion 37 of theenclosure 13 to clamp the same together and prohibit the passage of airinto the enclosure. Since there is no pressure differential between theinterior of the enclosure 13 and the surrounding atmosphere, it ismerely necessary to hold the ends of the enclosure tightly together inorder to provide the necessary seal. The size and shape of the enclosure13 is carefully correlated with the size of the can 10 and the heightbracket 12 so that a minimum of air is sealed inside of the enclosure13.

In operation, when the painter is finished for the day or wishes toterminate the painting for several hours, he removes the bracket 12 andenclosure 13 from a suitable storage packet and deforms the bracket 12into a U-shape (FIG. 4) so that the slot 16 is in the central portion 18thereof. It is necessary for the user to deter-mine which of the pairsof fold lines 25 will be deformed by judging the depth of paint in thecan 10 and the length of the brush 11. This normally can be approximatedby holding the U-shaped bracket 12 adjacent the can 10 with the brush 11in place. The end portions 12b of the bracket are deformed inwardlyabout the appropriate fold lines 28 so that the projections 27 areexposed and can easily be mounted in place. It is important that thebristles 11a be substantially completely submerged in the paint when thebracket 12 is mounted in place on the can.

The bracket 12 is then placed on the can 10 so that the appropriatepairs of projections 27 engage the peripheral flange 30, as describedabove. The paint brush 11 is then placed into the can 10 with the handle23 supported on the bracket 12 so that the ends 11b of the bristles 11aare spaced at least a short distance above the bottom 37 of the can 10to prevent deformation of the bristles. The

on a flat surface and the can placed thereon to enable two sides of theenclosure to be moved upwardly around the bracket 12 and sealed by theclasp 35.

In this position, there is not suflicient air in the enclosure 13 tocause the paint to dry more than a negligible amount and, therefore, itis not necessary to clean the brush 12 or seal the can 10 during thistemporary discontinuance of the use thereof. Because the enclosure 13and the bracket 12 are relatively inexpensive, they can be given away aspromotion items and discarded after being used once without any greatloss or expense.

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 5 wherein theconventional paint roller 4-0 and its elongated paint tray 41 areprotected from drying by use of an appropriately shaped enclosure 43.Accordingly, when the painter wishes to discontinue painting with theroller 40 for a short time, he merely places the roller in the tray 41and then places the flexible enclosure 43 which has been appropriatelyshaped around the entire tray and roller and seals the end of this bagwith the clasp 35, as described above. The entire tray 41 is thusprotected from an exchange or circulation of air, and therefore onlynegligible amount of drying will occur thus eliminating the necessity ofcleaning the tray 41 and roller 40 each time there is a temporary haltin painting.

Accordingly the invention has provided an inexpensive combination forprotecting the paint in an open can and the paint brush or rollerwithout requiring the usual cleaning operations for each temporary haltin the painting operation. The flexible enclosure and bracket are soshaped to fit a particular size of can and are adjustable to accommodatedifferent sizes of brushes and varying levels of paint in the open can.

While the forms of apparatus herein described constitute preferredembodiments of the invention, it is to be understood that the inventionis not limited to these precise forms of apparatus, and that changes maybe made therein without departing from the scope of the invention whichis defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:. v

1. Apparatus for simultaneously protecting a paint brush and forpreserving paint in an open can having an internal flange around theopen top thereof for receiving a cover, comprising a brush supportmember engaging the internal flange of the paint can at theperiphery ofthe opening in the top thereof, said support member being made from anelongated strip of relatively stiff but flexible material which definesa U-shaped bridge above the open paint can, said support member having abrush handle support portion in the central section thereof, said handlesupport portion including an open ended slot cut in the central portionof said strip for receiving the handle of a paint brush to hold thebrush positioned in the paint can, said holder means being adjustable sothat different size brushes can be supported thereby and to compensatefor varying levels of paint in the can to allow the bristles of thebrush to be submerged in thepaint, a plurality of projections extendingoutwardly of the plane of said elongated strip on each end of saidsupport member releasably engaging the internal flange around the opentop of the paint can, said projections adapted to position adjustablysaid central section of said strip above the center of the opening inthe can, a flexible air tight enclosure completely surrounding said canwith said holder means and the brush in position thereon, and means forreleasably sealing said enclosure to prevent the circulation of outsideair around the paint and brush but which permits easy removal of theenclosure for subsequent use of the paint and brush without cleaning.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,983,619 12/1934 Lent.

2,047,641 7/ 1936 Mares.

2,5 33,829 12/ 1950 Merryweather.

2,776,050 1/ 1957 Switzer.

2,798,239 7/1957 Freund 2201 RAPHAEL H. SCHWARTZ, Primary Examiner.

